Red Letter Day
by sweetdetection
Summary: Bigtime AU piece.  A short, fluffy story about a special day for Mara, and the gift Luke gives her to help celebrate it.


**Red-Letter Day  
**_by sweetdetection_

* * *

She had already stayed longer than she'd intended.

Mara Jade let her gaze wander over the grounds of the compound, the sounds of Yavin's fourth moon at sunset now as familiar to her as the sound of her own breathing. Around her, dimly, she could sense the rest of the students here at the Jedi Academy, but that too had become a part of the pattern of life here. No one would intrude on her privacy, of that much she was certain. She let her eyes roam over the lush jungle that surrounded the temple, this place having a bittersweet double-meaning for her.

It was the beginning of the end of the Empire, and the sounding stage for the end of her existence as the Emperor's Hand. And it was the place that was heralding in the next chapter of her life, the reclaiming of her heritage. And somehow, both were tied inevitably to one man: Luke Skywalker.

_Just how long_, she mused, _have our destinies been intertwined?_

It was a day of reflection for her. She'd retreated from Skywalker and the rest of his students, seeking refuge here on the top of one of the vast temples. She hadn't meant to stick around on Yavin IV -- she was neglecting her duties to the rest of the galaxy and to her boss. And though she had a nagging feeling that Talon Karrde would understand perfectly, it was time she got back to the wider universe. She'd be back, later, when there was another lull in activity. She'd never intended this to be an extended vacation. And she'd certainly never intended to still be here today, of all days.

She made a face, wondering where her sudden burst of sentimentality had come from. Then again, that seemed to be a nasty side effect from hanging about Skywalker for too long. That, and an annoying sense of optimism. The guy practically bled enthusiasm -- enthusiasm for life, enthusiasm for the Force, enthusiasm for his family, enthusiasm for the future, enthusiasm for training new Jedi… You name it, Luke Skywalker was enthusiastic about it.

_Must be all that time out there on that dustbowl of a home planet of his. Those twin suns have fried his brain_. But in spite of her cynicism, it was one of those things about Skywalker she wouldn't ever change. The galaxy, in her somewhat humble opinion, could use more enthusiastic people.

_Now, if we could just keep him from offering to stay behind and face certain, horrible death every time someone is in danger…_

"Mara?"

She about jumped off of the top of the temple at the sound of a voice so close by.

"Skywalker!" He hadn't been cloaking his presence from her, but she'd been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she hadn't sensed his approach. He offered a somewhat crooked smile, as if apologizing for catching her off-guards. She tried to glare at him, tried to remember that she should be annoyed by his habit to show up at precisely the _worst_ moment, and found herself failing miserably. Even muscle memory had fled, leaving her gaping at the Jedi as if she'd never seen him before.

"What do you want?" she asked, somewhat more warily than she'd intended. As her breathing came back to normal, she began to wonder why her heart wasn't following suit. But it thundered on, oblivious to the calm the rest of her body was relaxing into.

"Well, it's…" Suddenly bashful, Luke made a detailed study of his boots. Only then did she realize that he was hiding something behind his back. Stretching out in the Force to tentatively brush against his Force-sense, Mara made another startling little discovery -- he was nervous. "It's…"

"Are you always this articulate, Skywalker?" she asked, smirking a little as she attempted to see what he was keeping so carefully from her view. She probed his Force-sense again, but he'd protected himself well, shielding from her any clues as to why he was on the roof of the temple and what it was that he was keeping just out of sight.

Then he glanced up at her, with those sunrise blue eyes of his, and she forgot to be amused at his expense. Instead, her heart redoubled its efforts to win a one-sided race.

Or maybe not so one-sided. Open to the Force as she was, Mara could feel the pounding of Luke's heart, echoing the erratic beating of her own. Suddenly feeling jittery, she tried to tear her eyes away and look for an escape route. But there was none -- it was a long drop to the jungle floor below, and even if that had been a possibility, there was really no place on the planet -- in the galaxy -- that she could hide from him.

"Except Myrkr," he added, one corner of his lips turning up wryly. "I wouldn't be able to find you there."

_Maybe not with the Force. _But Mara knew, she just _knew_, that Luke would be able to find her even if she was hiding on a planet full of ysalamiri. _Somehow, you always do_.

"Changing the subject, Skywalker?" she said aloud, trying not to think too hard about just how much his loyalty meant to her.

"Guilty," he admitted with a bashful grin. "I just…I just wanted to say…"

He brought his hands out from behind his back, and in his arms he was delicately cradling a bouquet of beautiful lilies. At the heart of each bloom was a core of fiery red tempered by streaks of orange and hints of yellow. His heart in his throat, he peeked up to see her reaction to his offering. Stunned, Mara took a step toward him before she realized what she was doing. Her eyes came up to meet his gaze, and in them was an obvious question. He managed to turn his embarrassed wriggle into a shrug.

"Happy birthday," he said simply, holding the flowers out to her. "There's cake, and presents from a few of the students and your coworkers. And Karrde and Leia and Han and me, too. They're in your room. But I…I just wanted to say it in person."

She took them, hoping she'd imagined the sudden tremble in her fingers. As she did, Luke mustered up his courage and closed the space between them, his hand catching her elbow. He gave it a gentle squeeze.

"How did you know?" she asked, lifting emerald eyes from his simple, stunning gift.

"A gentleman never tells," he replied cryptically, with a little smirk. It softened into a smile as he continued to hold her gaze, looking down at her tenderly. "I'm glad you chose to spend it here."

_But I didn't intend… _Mara found she couldn't tear her eyes away from Luke's. He was right…she had chosen to stay, to be here, near to him, on her birthday. She could waste time rationalizing it: he was her friend, and she still had a lot of training to do and she was in the middle of certain, difficult lessons, and Karrde didn't really need her yet anyway… There were plenty of reasons. Plenty of excuses. And yet here she was, standing with the one man she trusted most in all the universe, quietly celebrating her birthday.

Her earlier damnation of sentimentality forgotten, Mara Jade found herself blinking back tears. Luke frowned slightly, bravely and gently brushing a thumb over her cheek as if to catch them before they fell.

"You shouldn't be sad today. It's a day to celebrate," he murmured.

"I'm not sad," she told him, knowing full well he could sense her true emotions. He snuck her a boyish little smile, nodding, and she realized suddenly that their faces were very close. She shifted her hold on the blooms so their sudden nearness wouldn't crush them, trying to reign in her stampeding heart yet again.

"Thank you," she whispered. Something flickered quickly across Luke's Force-sense, and she felt a huge tide of warmth from him. Warmth, and a deep affection that was somehow always her undoing.

"No need for thanks," he replied. Slowly, he closed the gap between them, that affection spiraling into something far more complex as his lips brushed delicately over her cheek. "I'm going to go get some of that cake."

Reeling from a sudden influx of emotions she'd been fighting against for too long already, Mara didn't realize he was leaving until he was halfway across the roof of the temple -- leaving her suddenly cold in his wake. "Nerf," she called after him. "Is all you ever do eat?"

"Nah, Jade…sometimes I save the galaxy too." He shrugged and tossed her a teasing wink. He started to head down the stairs that spiraled down into the heart of the temple --

"Hang on a minute," she found herself saying, and he stopped and turned back to her. Inevitably a part of both who she was and who she was becoming, and paused on the brink of something bigger than them both. She didn't need the Force to reveal a possible future to her, not today. It was standing just a few yards away. "I'll come with you."

• • •

**Author's Notes**: A red-letter day is a day of special significance. And "Hang on a minute, I'll come with you," are the final words spoken in The Last Command.


End file.
